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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24485827">Prize</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baseguitarz/pseuds/Baseguitarz'>Baseguitarz</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A panty raid is mentioned, AO3 KEEPS MESSING MY TAGS UP, F/M, If you squint theres a mention of ibuki having eating issues be safe, Kazuichi is best friends with them both but its only mentioned in passing, Rarepair, i googled baseball techniques for this but then didnt proofread it lol, leon mentally threatens like 3 people, pls enjoy my otp, sexualization of young girls in the music industry is breifly mentioned as well, theres a love confession, they kiss, tldr Leon flexes is ultimate</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:00:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,737</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24485827</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baseguitarz/pseuds/Baseguitarz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ibuki really, really wants that carnival prize and Leon really, really likes to impress Ibuki.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kuwata Leon/Mioda Ibuki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Prize</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Leon. Think about the opportunity we have here, with your mad skills."</p><p>She was holding me by the shoulders, pulling me down slightly due to a pretty large discrepancy in our heights. But she was looking me dead on in the eyes, smiling as wildly as she always did.</p><p>I sighed. "You don't need to make it all grand, what plush do you want? I'll win it for you." I had accepted that I did not actually hate baseball, so I was more than willing to cheat my way into getting whatever stuffed animal she was so set on having. Though I guess it really is not cheating if you're just super talented at something. </p><p>Keeping her hands on my shoulders, she gestured to the thing with a nod of the head. "The big pink bear! It looks soft."</p><p>And of course leave it to Ibuki Mioda to pick the most colorful and large prize. Which may have been a hassle for anyone else on the planet but I would probably win the damn thing with my eyes closed. </p><p>I patted her head. "Yeah, yeah. I'll get it Bubu."</p><p>"Thank you, Leo Leo!" Ibuki immediately leapt at me and gave me a full force hug, which did not mean a great deal coming from her. She was tiny. But she was still full of so much energy that her hugs still felt like they were gonna knock me over, and I pulled her up and spam her around. </p><p>Her giggles were adorable. "Weeeeee! Spin spin time!" Ibuki held on as tight as she could, but I knew that I was the one doing all the lifting and supporting here. Not like I minded much, at least all the training and such made it easy to haul her around. And trust me, she was always having me throw her around or carry her. </p><p>I carefully plopped the musician back on her feet and turned to the game that had the prize that my girl wanted. It was super, super surreal to refer to her as that. My classmates were also super surprised since they all dismissed my dream of being a rockstar and assumed Ibuki would see right through how shallow my desire to do that was. And she totally did, but what everyone did not bet on was her not holding it against me. Sayaka especially was dumbfounded, since she had known Ibuki prior to Hope's Peak and was very aware of how serious Ibuki was about bandmates. It was probably the only thing she was ever serious about. </p><p>So, I wasn't Ibuki's bandmate like I always planned on being. But I was her boyfriend and that was more than enough for me, and it was still punk rock as shit to be dating the ultimate musician.</p><p>"Oh shit, this one is gonna be particularly easy. It's just down-a-clown." I was pretty good at all carnival games since a good majority involved throwing stuff. I was even good at the shooting ones since I was used to calculating the projection of a baseball. Strength based games were also no problem for me. Down-a-clown was even easier though, since the entire point was to throw a beanbag at a clown shaped target as hard as possible to knock it down.</p><p>Even though it was easy for me I decided to give Ibuki just a little bit of a hard time over it.</p><p>I scratched at the back of my head, pursing my lips. "Actually, I'm not too sure if I can win this one. Maybe you should try it first and I can gauge how hard it is based on that."</p><p>She immediately gave me this little nasty look she tried so hard to give when she was annoyed. Ibuki would knot her drawn on eyebrows together and pout as hard as she could, but at the end of the day it was just precious. "Aw, c'mon! I know you're just saying that to make me look silly."</p><p>"I would never do that. Totally not my style. Not punk rock in the slightest." I crossed my arms across my chest. There was no way she would back down, she was not the type of girl who backed down on something she wanted. </p><p>And I was right about that. "Fine!" She grunted, "I'm a strong and independent woman and I'll show you by winning it myself!"</p><p>I held back a comment on that, because I knew for a fact she had the arm strength of a toddler. Albeit a toddler on steroids because she somehow could muster the strength to break a guitar, but that was definitely the absolute extent of Ibuki's strength. All I did was nod.</p><p>She stomped up in her platforms up to the stand and handed off a few dollars to the man running it. I walked up beside her and leaned up against the shotty table at the front of the small game, watching her intently.</p><p>"Go on, show me how it's done." Even though they were words of encouragement, I said it in a tone that very much conveyed my amusement with the situation I had put her in.</p><p>Picking up three bean bags, Buki stuck out her tongue. "I never said I was the CEO of knowing how to throw things, you made me do this!"</p><p>"Well didn'tcha just go off about how you're a strong independent woman who was gonna win it all by herself?" I flashed her a devious grin, "You know what, I'll even be nice enough to give you pointers." </p><p>Ibuki looked at me with a very deadpan expression, followed by another pout. "Ok, then give me a pointer then."</p><p>"First of all, holding it like that isn't gonna get you anywhere." I leaned in closer to her, thoroughly enjoying this experience. Ibuki was simply letting the bag rest in the palm of her hand with her fingers wrapped around it carelessly, which was 100% not the way to hold anything you want to actually fly. "Bend your pinky and index finger against your palm, sort of cradle the top of the bean bag with your middle and pointer finger and grip the side of it with your thumb."</p><p>Dumbfounded, she blinked at me. "Wait, it's that complicated?"</p><p>I rolled my eyes playfully, "Not complicated when you know what you're doing."</p><p>"I never claimed that I knew what I was doing, I just think I can do it anyways." </p><p>Shrugging, I backed away from her. "Ok, then go off, I guess you really don't need any help from me if you're that determined."</p><p>"Anyways with your help! I never said I didn't want help." Ibuki was staring at her hand, very clearly trying to recreate what I had just told her to do. Fortunately I knew she was not gonna struggle as hard as the average beginner, since I knew she had finger flexibility and stamina from playing guitar. Normally newbies struggled a lot with getting their fingers to loosen up enough to hold a ball properly, but I doubted it would be a problem for her. </p><p>For her, it was more understanding the motion. I deliberately had described it all super quickly so that she would not recall any of it to give myself the opportunity to do what I wanted to do.</p><p>"Gimme your hand, I'll just show you then." And God, I felt so damn smooth for that move. I think Ibuki totally forgot that I was quite the charm master. Surely even she would fall for it.</p><p>Unceremoniously as ever she plopped her hand in mine. My charm apparently would never catch her, even when I was fucking dating her. "Ok, show me how it works Mr. Ultimate Baseball Star!"</p><p>Crouching a bit to get on her level I decided to give my girlfriend a sly little kiss on the cheek. "Don't call me by my ultimate, Miss. Super High School Level Light Music Club Member."</p><p>"Ugh! Nasty!" She was not rejecting the kiss, but she was rejecting me referring to the official title of her ultimate. Ibuki had a weird relationship with that title since it implied that she played pop music when she was a devout metalhead and planned on never playing pop music ever again.</p><p>"Mhm. Now here, this is how you do it." Her fingers were still cold. Thin and particularly long too. Her black nail polish was perpetually chipped. Her petite body was always made apparent when compared to mine, and her hand was practically swallowed up by mind as I forced her fingers into place. Two fingers against the palm. Two on top, thumb caressing the side. "There ya go. The rest is all arm strength which I really can't give you any advice on, butttttt," I grabbed her by her wrist (gently of course, I wasn't too fond of yoinking her around like property) and with my body wrapped around her, pulled her arm above her head and back into a good throwing stance, "I can just use your hand and throw it for you and let you feel like you actually did something."</p><p>While I was nice and was gentle with my manhandling, she was not as courteous and elbowed me in the stomach. Her elbows were boney and it did hurt, damn witch. My witch. I let go of her.</p><p>"I am gonna actually do something, now sit back and watch Ibuki rock." Her face was determined. It looked like how her face looked before she went on stage. Probably the only times she ever looked focused. </p><p>She audibly drew in her breath, pulled her arm back and let it fly. All that glorious buildup and determination for it to fly far left, away from any of the worn clown figures set up to knock down. Ibuki pouted and I smirked.</p><p>I clapped. "Woo! Shit, might as well give you my jersey so you can take my place on the pro team cause that was one hell of a pitch babe."</p><p>After uttering out what could only be described as a verbal keysmash, actual words spilled from her lips. "Ok and then you can take my Phantom Vox IV and I'll shove you on stage with a band and see how well that goes, since you couldn't play a scale even if your life depended on it."</p><p>I wrapped my arms around her from behind and pulled her against my chest, not at all bothered by how worked up she was getting. She really didn't get worked up much. I guess she really wanted that bear. "I already admitted that I suck balls at instruments so you're gonna have to find a better insult now."</p><p>"Suck balls? You? I bet money its Kazuichi."</p><p>"Gross."</p><p>"Oh, so Hiro then." Ibuki made too many jokes about me liking men. She was very comfortably bisexual but I would have rather perished than admit any sort of attraction to men. Not saying I didn't have it, it was just something I would neither confirm nor deny in my own head and women are hot. Way hotter than men. Yeah. </p><p>I snapped out of the brief crisis to scoff. "Grosser, he smells like weed and disappointment."</p><p>"Eh, I love Kaz to death but he smells like that too. Motor oil on top of it. Plus Hiro wears really nice cologne and he doesn't bathe in axe like you do." Ibuki made a point to call me out for wearing axe, citing it as a very fuckboy thing to do. Which was dumb because it was supposed to attract women and she was very clearly dating me so obviously it worked. </p><p>I pinched her side, "You compare me to Hiro weirdly often, there something I should know?"</p><p>"And you stare at Sayaka's butt a lot, so I guess we are even!" I didn't even realize I still did that. Old habits die hard I guess and even though everyone assumes she's dense, Ibuki does have a pretty sharp eyes sometimes.</p><p>Deciding to avoid facing that at the moment, I let go of her and trotted toward the remaining bags. "Uh, yeah, so I'll just get that bear for you now."</p><p>Ibuki pointed at her temples in a very goofy way, "The guilt has set in! You feel bad for looking at her butt so now you're gonna get me an apology bear instead of making me throw things!" Leave it to Ibuki to not let a subject go. </p><p>"I didn't mean anything by it if I even did that, and since I don't recall if I did it clearly didn't have much impact on me." Sheepishly I tried to write off my behavior. I had cheated on so many girls in my lifetime that it was weird of me to get so defensive over this. I liked Ibuki a lot more than any other girl I dated though. Sure, I had some cool girlfriends in the past, but none of them were quite like her. I would almost drop the L bomb on it, but that word was pretty freaky, so neither of us had said it yet. </p><p>Ibuki suddenly leaped behind me and took a pretty firm grab on my ass, giggling and very much catching me off guard. She definitely was not big enough to physically topple me over, but the surprise alone almost knocked me down. "Hehe! It's ok, I've looked too! She's really hot. It would be a sin for me to be so possessive that I would not allow you to witness such beautiful cheeks."</p><p>My laughter was nervous, which was also fucking weird of me since it wasn't like this was the first time a girl has grabbed my ass. Fuck, it was not even the first time Ibuki had done it. Something about Ibuki just always struck me differently than other girls. It made my heart pound a lot harder. "Y-yeah, you want the bear or nah?"</p><p>"Still want it! Gimme." She released me and trotted a few steps back, eyes gleaming even through the contacts. The day I found out she wore glasses and literally wore the same style of contacts that Kazuichi did rocked my world. A cute girl with cute glasses. I lov- liked her. </p><p>That was a really big word and I needed to save that for another day.</p><p>I threw a few more cents at the man running the stand and picked up a few more bean bags for my round. I knew this would require like, 0 focus from me since I was accustomed to throwing things out the damn field. Holding back was not exactly a hard thing to do, so I just maintained a calm and lazy conversation while getting into my stance. "Are you gonna name the bear?"</p><p>"Hm, depends. What do you wanna name it?" I threw the first bean bag and obviously hit my target, picking up the next bag without even really looking at it. </p><p>I decided I didn't really need to look at the game to win it. It wasn't even exciting enough of a game for the clowns to move, so I looked back at her to respond while throwing. I could hear the clown go down. "It's your bear, so your choice."</p><p>New beanbag and new clown. Down. "We can have joint custody."</p><p>Down. "I'm not that great at naming things."</p><p>"We could name it Orange!" She exclaimed, in a very characteristic burst of randomness. </p><p>Down. Still not looking at the bag, my hand, or the clowns. "But it's pink, so that's kind of confusing."</p><p>Tapping her lip, she nodded. "Yeah, you're right, we shouldn't give him an identity crisis on purpose."</p><p>"So the bear is a guy?" The bean bags were flowing so effortlessly that it almost took less effort than breathing did.</p><p>"Mhm. Maybe we could name him like he is a band! Satanic Lobotomy sounds nice." It was sort of amusing that she was so accustomed to my talent that she was not in awe of what I was doing. I hardly thought anything of it myself, but I was starting to catch a few stares from onlookers, not to mention the man running the game. </p><p>Agreeing, I nodded. "Yeah, that sounds pretty cool, I like that one."</p><p>"Yay!" Ibuki clapped, "We have now named our son, now you gotta claim him!"</p><p>I almost missed one clown on that note. Blinking, and spacing out for just a second, I decided to turn and actually pay attention to what I was doing. My mind did not need to wander in that direction. Mustering out the L word was daunting for me and my head would spin too much if I let my mind go off on the tangent she had set up. </p><p>Facing the game now, I silently went to work speed throwing the bags at the clowns. I decided to start working in rows, going top down from all the clowns I had already hit. Down, down, down. Not a single miss, of course. I'm not the ultimate for no reason. </p><p>"Psst." Ibuki tapped my shoulder, "you're sort of getting an audience." </p><p>Glancing back to her first and then behind her, and I discovered that what she defined as a crowd was surprisingly small. It was just one family, and really the only person that was really engaged in watching was the youngest son. The people who I assumed were his parents were sort of whispering to each other.</p><p>The son had the absolute widest eyes and most slack jaw that I had ever seen on a kid. His eyes were practically beaming. It was sort of sweet. I actually liked kids a little bit, but I would rather get pelted to death by baseballs rather than admit it to anyone. </p><p>He pointed at me, "Are you who I think you are?"</p><p>"Depends. Who do you think I am?" I absentmindedly started tossing the bean bag in my hand, deciding to give this kid my attention for a second since he had been so focused on me. </p><p>He pursed his lips. "Um, I'm not very good at names, cause reading is sort of hard, but you're eighteen! Just like the card!"</p><p>Ibuki interjected and decided to randomly gush over by me wrapping her arms around one of mine and nuzzling into my shoulder. "Yep! He's number eighteen alright, formerly of LL Academy!"</p><p>"Yeah, and I have a name ya know." I rolled my eyes at her, "It's Leon Kuwata, what's up kiddo?"</p><p>The kid actually jumped up and down, clapping. "You're the one that pitches really really fast! My dad took me to one of your games one time, and that's when I got the card! It's signed too, but I don't carry it with me."</p><p>I completely forgot that Coach Nekomaru had me sign a ton of baseball cards to hand out to fans back in the day. He was a nice dude and liked to get his teams to interact with fans. Back then I protested it a lot because I always felt so grossed out by being surrounded by people after getting all sweaty playing baseball, bodyheat could go eat a dick. It was cute that this kid remembered it though. "Well, it's nice to see a fan. You clearly have good taste."</p><p>"You look really different though, what happened to your hair? Did she do that to you?" The kid pointed at Ibuki, and honestly I could not blame him for assuming that she was the one who directed my style change. I was very proud that I took on my own style though, even though I did let her do my hair now. (She's really, really good at it.)</p><p>"Nah, he did that to his noggin way before he even knew who I was." Incorrect statement, but I guess she was correct that I had never met her in person at that point. </p><p>He nodded. "It's cool! I wanna do that to my hair, can I?" Turning around to look up at his mother, I could tell from where I was standing that he was giving her puppy dog eyes. </p><p>The father cleared his throat. "Um, I don't mean to interrupt anything, especially not when my son wants to talk to you but I couldn't help but ask." He pointed to my girlfriend, "Are you Ibuki Mioda?"</p><p>Her grin was precious. "Yep! In the flesh."</p><p>"It's an honor! I really like the new direction you've taken with your music. I didn't really listen to your music with your old band, but your solo stuff is nothing short of amazing. I was a big fan of your father too, back in the day." It was fairly easy to forget that Ibuki's dad was a megastar back in the day when she had outdone him so much at a young age. But I guess avoiding an intense party life set her up better than him in terms of talent. He was sort of a sell out relic now, and was pretty damn old to be her dad. I knew she was related to him, but always assumed he was her grandfather until she corrected me.</p><p>She was pretty accustomed to people gushing about her, but Ibuki was always a smidge awkward talking about her dad. I noticed that she actually tried really hard to hide it, but her relationship with him was far from ideal and it weighed on her a lot. He had fried his brain pretty bad back in his wild days and even though it made him sensational and infamous, it sort of made him a distant father. Ibuki was his only child (at least, the only legitimate one he was aware of) but he still managed to forget things about her. He loved her, and he tried, but he just wasn't a very fatherly type. </p><p>"Thanks! Dad actually is thinking about collabing with me at some point. He's uh," The awkwardness set in. "He's just sort of busy, y'know? He always has so much going on, all the time! Busy busy busy! And I'm like super busy busy busy with school, so maybe one day we'll get around to it, but not anytime soon, but maybe one day. Just not soon." She was stumbling over words, even more than what was normal for her. Her dad was a touchy subject. The collab album was even touchier.</p><p>Deciding to save her from talking anymore about it, I changed the topic. "Yeah, she's a living legend. But did you want anything signed? I mean, from either of us I guess."</p><p>Ibuki pouted, "My contract makes me charge for signings and I gotta do it all supervised… Hm, but if you promise to keep it a secret, Ibuki will trust you!"</p><p>Shit. I wouldn't have even offered it up if I knew about that detail, because of course Ibuki is willing to risk her entire fucking contract over a single fan. Or maybe she was being cocky, because it would be fucking stupid for that company to drop her over anything with all the talent she was packing. </p><p>"No need for the trouble, but I think Akira may want something from you, Mr. Kuwata." The dad gestured down again to the young son, who was still practically bouncing with energy.</p><p>To perhaps everyone's surprise, the kid just shook his head. "Nope! I already have a signed thingy! I just wanna watch you throw bean bags." </p><p>On that note, Ibuki loosened her grip on my arm and stepped back from me. "Well, then you should continue. Shouldn't keep your fans waiting!" She winked. Ibuki had made a habit of reminding me all the time that I had fans to hype me up despite that I admittedly wouldn't be a musician at this stage in life. I was still clinging to the idea of eventually becoming the former baseball star turned musician after enjoying my sport for as long as possible, but admittedly I wasn't putting a ton of practice in it even when Ibuki would try to help teach me. </p><p>And with that, I continued. I downed every clown with ease of course. The attendant had overheard our conversation and didn't seem phased that I was winning. Ibuki was beaming at the bear, anxiously fidgeting with the end of one of her extensions while she eyed it.</p><p>The exchange with the attendant was brief once I had won. He could pretty much deduce with no words that she wanted the pink bear, and he handed it off directly to her with no protest. He nodded to me, and I nodded back, and I walked back toward the family with Ibuki in tow. </p><p>"How do you throw that fast and hard!?" He piped up immediately, staring at me intensely as ever. "Mama said you probably practice for like hours every day, do you even have any time to play video games? Do you even sleep? Do they make you do schoolwork or do you just play baseball all day? Is that your girlfriend? Does she play baseball, does-"</p><p>I held my hands up. "Woah, my brain can only process like three things at a time, so let's cool out on all that. I don't really practice that much anymore and I never really needed to practice in the first place, and-"</p><p>"And he is immensely humble!" Ibuki used the plush as a barrier to hide the fact that she elbowed me in the ribs again. What was her deal? "He has always practiced a lot, ever since he was a kid just like you! So if you wanna pitch like him you should have a good practice schedule and eat all your veggies, especially the protein dense ones so you can get all muscular!" </p><p>Oh. So that was her deal. Ibuki was trying to shill me off as something to motivate this kid. I guess it was virtuous even though she was lying through her teeth, knowing damn well I hardly practiced. </p><p>He nodded, seeming to take her words as seriously as he would have if they had came from me. "Okay, so I guess that means I have to actually go to practice instead of faking being sick…"</p><p>His mom's eyebrow twitched. "Faking?"</p><p>Immediately his face went pale. "Uh oh…."</p><p>As the family started to have their own little argument, Ibuki and I decided it was a good time to excuse ourselves. Politely as we could we said our goodbyes without causing too much interruption to his scolding and were on our way.</p><p>I grabbed the hand that she was not using to hold the plush I won for her. "Is it soft?"</p><p>"Mhm. Very soft." It was pressed tight to her chest. What did she decide to name it again? Satanic something. I couldn't even remember.</p><p>There was a comfortable silence between us for a moment. I spent the time just looking around, examining the various prize booths and small food trucks. I was pretty hungry, but I was sort of just hungry all the time. I got lost in thought thinking about what food I should get, mostly dwelling on funnel cake, when Ibuki stopped and tapped my shoulder.</p><p>"Hey uh, so like," Ibuki pursed her lips, squinting her eyes a little. It was a weird expression but it wasn't like her normal wacky expressions. If anything, it was weird because it was serious. "Can we like sit somewhere for a second?"</p><p>"Yeah, you ok?" Ibuki was normally just a ball of energy and would run around at the most random of times, so her needing to sit down was pretty strange. </p><p>Nodding, she avoided eye contact with me. "Yeah, it's all good! Just wanna sit down with you and Satanic Lobotomy, y'know?"</p><p>It was easy to find a place to sit, deciding to sit on a shitty bench next to a lemonade truck. The paint was chipped and there was some bird shit on the side of it, so we sat particularly close together to avoid that. Not like either of us would really mind, Ibuki did not have much of a concept of personal space and I liked being close to her. </p><p>Ibuki plopped the bear in her lap and stared at it, playing with its front paws. Her voice was quieter and more measured than normal, sort of like how it got before she went on stage. "I kind of don't really know how to do all this."</p><p>I blinked. "Do what?"</p><p>"What I'm trying to do. Can I have your jacket?" The first few words were soft and almost nervous, while her request for my jacket was blurted out and quickly spoken.</p><p>Ibuki got cold pretty easy and I lended her my jacket all the time, so without question I unceremoniously started to slide it off.</p><p>"Nono! Like," she let out a very long sigh, like she was frustrated with me, "Can I haaaaaave it. Like for good. And sometimes you can have it back so that it smells like you again, but then I take it back cause its mine."</p><p>Holy fuck. That was adorable. My face probably lit up, but so was Ibuki's and she wasn't even looking up from the bear in her lap, so she had no clue of how red I was. Her question caught me off guard, and I reached up to nervously ruffle my hair. "Uh, fuck, I mean yeah! That's fine. You always forget to bring a coat with you anyways so its probably good that you'll have mine now." </p><p>"That's not really the reason I want it ya know. I could buy a coat if I really wanted one cause I was cold. I want yours because its… yours." Sometimes she would get stuck with these profound moments that would remind me that she was a damn good lyricist and actually could get serious. Even then, this somehow felt different.</p><p>The smile on my face would not go away, and I didn't even really care to keep it in check to make myself look cool in the moment. "That's cute, you can definitely keep it. And like you said, I'll wear it sometimes since you want it to smell like me or whatever." My smile evolved into a smirk, "Hehe, I guess you really aren't immune to the axe!"</p><p>Ibuki straightened her posture for a moment and readjusted to lay her head on my shoulder. "Mhm. I guess I'm not."</p><p>Silence returned, but this time it was more tense. It wasn't a bad tension, it just felt like there was something hanging in the air, and I was not sure of what it was. </p><p>"What's the longest relationship you've ever had?"</p><p>That was out of the blue, but most things that Ibuki said were out of the blue anyways so it didn't phase me. "Uh, I think like nine months? I don't really remember. I didn't keep up with it most the time." I almost added "until now", but that seemed a little too serious to tack on. </p><p>"Oh." It was weird to hear that. It was not like she never said oh, but normally it was not followed by silence. She always had something to say. I could hear her swallow. "Ugh, I really, really don't know how to do this! I've never had to! You should do it instead."</p><p>Genuinely confused, I cocked my head and looked down at her. "What are you even on about?"</p><p>"You have more experience with this sorta thing, duh. I didn't really date cause I was so focused on my music and all, and I know I really care and I feel like if I do it I'll fuck it up so you need to do it." </p><p>That did not clear up even an ounce of my confusion. "Do what? What do you want me to do?"</p><p>Ibuki was skirting around something and I had no idea what it was, but it had to be serious considering that she was actually trying to be careful about her words and not just blurting it out with no filter as usual. "I don't even know! I mean I know, but like, I don't know if that should even be in consideration right now or if my brain is just going wacky to think that it should be, and I'm always really all over the place I think so I'm probably totally off the mark on what is acceptable when it comes to this sorta thing, so I'm just," she paused, looking for the word, "I'm just clueless and you're not clueless so you either need to do the thing or not do the thing and I guess I'll just go along with it."</p><p>"You really have too much faith in my ability to read your mind." I was vaguely frustrated. One of her best qualities was that she was almost never afraid to speak what was on her mind, and while it was okay to have this moment of insecurity I was growing anxious about whatever it was. </p><p>Ibuki nuzzled in closer to my neck. "I'm not saying you gotta read my mind, just do what feels right."</p><p>"I am doing what feels right?" My voice trailed off to what sounded like a question, even though it was really just a point and blank statement.</p><p>A sigh escaped her lips and her whole body heaved with it. "Okay, so that means that it shouldn't happen and that things should go on as usual. Gotcha."</p><p>"Jeez, what are you even implying could have happened?" I was getting anxious, plus with how vague was being my mind was going a smidge crazy with assumptions. I had a propensity to have my head very firmly shoved in into the gutter and my brain was going there, but my heart raced way too much with even the assumption. Surely that was not the case, right? It would be cool and all, it would be cooler than cool, but for some reason it made me nervous as fuck and normally that never made me nervous with girls and my stomach felt really fluttery. </p><p>Even though I had no clue what was going on I had a feeling it couldn't be that. That was me just being hopeful.</p><p>Ibuki kept playing with the paws on the stuffed animal. "Its not even that big of a deal to most people probably. But it also is a big deal to some people, it feels like a really big deal to me and I think it's a big deal to you just because of… I just know it is cause if it wasn't this whole situation wouldn't even be a thing and it would have just came up already."</p><p>"Well," I shuffled a bit to get more comfortable, "If it's a big deal to you I care about it, cause I care about you. You really don't make any sense right now though, so if you could like. Elaborate even just a little bit I might be able to like, comfort you at least." </p><p>Ibuki reached over with one hand and grabbed mine softly, running her fingers over my knuckles. "Well, like. You're really cool."</p><p>Finally, a sentence I could process. "You are too. You're the coolest." </p><p>She chuckled, gaining a little momentum with her ability to speak whatever was on her mind, "And we hang out a lot at school and all, and since we live in the dorms we see each other after too. And we still hang on the weekends like now."</p><p>"Yep, great powers of observation you got." I nudged her playfully.</p><p>The jab to my ribs was a little weaker this time. "So I'm just glad you were dumb enough to think that you could just strut up to the literal ultimate musician and ask her to be in a band with you when you don't even know the difference between beat and rhythm. Cause you didn't know the type of person I was and you were totally just ready to get rejected, but you still went for it and I think that it's really punk that you did that."</p><p>Looking back, if it was anyone but me it probably would have been embarrassing to be so upfront. I never really struggled with confidence though. "Well yeah, you're like 5'2, you aren't scary."</p><p>"5'3! I'm 5'3." She piped up, even though an inch difference did not change the fact that she just barely came up to my shoulders.</p><p>"Point stands."</p><p>"Fair enough." Rubbing her knees instead of fidgeting with the plush, she withdrew back into herself. It was weird to see her get all pulled up into a shell. It wasn't like her at all.</p><p>She was still herself though, and donned a new goofy expression. Ibuki was puffing her cheeks and furrowing her brows, thinking hard. "So basically I would be pretty mad at myself if I made you upset."</p><p>"Well, you've never really made me upset. Except for when you like initially confronted me about the baseball thing, but that was sort of me being a pissbaby. And you kissed me for the first time to get me to realize what bullshit I was on so it all balanced out." That night was a damn good example of how good she was at reading people. She just pulled me out on the field at fucking midnight and begged me to throw a ball just once. And I did, and then she said she would kiss me if I told her how I actually felt about baseball. Oddly enough she didn't really put together that I had a crush in her, she just thought that the punk cred from kissing her would be enough to bait me into admitting it. Regardless she got me to admit that I missed baseball, and I really appreciated it. At the time I yelled at her for trying to get me to say it though, and it was really the only time she ever raised my blood pressure like that.</p><p>I felt her nod into my shoulder. "Yeah, you really needed to hear that anyways so I don't care if that pissed you off." Her voice trailed into a shy laugh. "... But if I pissed you off over this, when I could avoid it probably, I would feel like shit."</p><p>"You want me to promise that I won't be pissed then?"</p><p>"That isn't realistic, cause you have no idea what I'm gonna say." Ibuki shot down my proposal immediately. </p><p>She kept talking me into corners and talking herself in circles. "Well, then I don't know what I can do for ya babe."</p><p>Her voice picked up speed and volume, sounding frustrated. "Its so dumb okay and it isn't worth fucking everything up over something so objectively small! And I keep telling myself to just let it go but it keeps nagging at me and I want to just push it off on you and make you deal with it but I also wanna do it and I really want to, and it feels right to, and I know it its just… all of it. All of it is a lot."</p><p>"You don't really gotta stress over whatever it is. You don't gotta tell me I guess, so you can let it go if you really wanna." Comforting her when I had no clue what I was comforting her from was really fucking hard, but I did my damndest on that bench.</p><p>She really, really needed to start announcing when she planned on yanking on my goatee. Ibuki had a habit of just pulling on it whenever she wanted a kiss, surprisingly really commanding when it came to kissing. But even by her standard she was being particularly sloppy, and normally she avoided making out with me in a setting that was this public. I did not care in the fucking slightest who saw me with my tongue down her throat, if anything it was a pretty cool flex for people to know that I kissed her. Without much thought I let the pain of her manhandling me pass and was just content to enjoy her lips on mine, chapped from black lipstick and all.</p><p>After what was probably a few short minutes, Ibuki pulled away and sat back up in a notably straight posture. An unnaturally straight one. As wacky as she always was, even this was weird for her. She kept her eyes trained forward and away from me.</p><p>"You're a good kisser. I'm sure like, plenty of girls have told you that before." She was correct in that regard and was well aware of it, since my history of being a bit of a playboy was no secret to her. "But even then I hope it like, maybe means a little more when I say it? Like that probably sounds uber selfish that I want you to see me as above them, and I don't even want you to see me as a superior person cause that seems disrespectful cause I'm sure they were all lovely girls. I just want to mean more, which again, is super mega selfish of me! I wanna mean as much to you as you mean to me, cause you mean a lot to me." Ibuki was rambling in circles. "Normally I don't mind being wrong even if I'm horrendously wrong. Shame is a dumb concept so I don't fuck with it. Which I guess the issue isn't a matter of my shame, and it isn't me not understanding the fact that I already dealt with, I just would feel like a really big shitlord if I made you uncomfortable." It sounded to me like she was working through her thought process outloud, so I didn't interrupt her ramblings.</p><p> "And like I already processed the fact that I'm in love with you so I wanna say it but if it fucked up everything-" She bolted up, her eyes widened. "Shit fuck ass tits motherfuck ass fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck! Shit!"</p><p>I couldn't help but cough, heart fucking racing. Butterflies in my stomach? More like gigantic moths, it was almost nauseating from how euphoric it felt. </p><p>She was scrambling over words, "That was not supposed to come out like that I swear, I wasn't gonna say it outright I meant to just sort of figure out the proper etiquette about saying it cause I genuinely had no clue and I don't wanna scare you off by saying it too soon cause it could totally wait and I could be in the wrong for even wanting to say it and I just don't know, Ibuki's brain isn't wired really well for romance but I care about you sososososo much and want to do things right and-"</p><p>My voice cracked so hard that I sounded like I was going through puberty again. "I love you too."</p><p>"Huh wait what?" Ibuki blinked. "Say that again."</p><p>"I love you too, silly." I pulled her in closer to me. My voice was not exactly calm even though I was trying pretty hard to keep my cool. Not very punk to freak out over a word.</p><p>"Oh. Okay then good! Now I don't feel like a creeper… aw man." Ibuki giggled at the end of her sentence, but I could tell that her voice was a little bit more airy than normal. I think she was happy, and I hoped she was happy.</p><p>Silence followed.</p><p>"I thought that was gonna change a lot more things but I feel exactly the same as I did before, just with a slightly elevated heartbeat. It's like bumbumbumbum right now when it used to be like bum bum." Ibuki resumed playing with her bear's appendages. "But I'm close enough to your chest right now and your heart is doing that too, so at least it goes both ways."</p><p>That was a smidge embarrassing, knowing I couldn't hide a damn thing from those well trained ears. "I guess they're just words at the end of the day. Still means a lot, but it doesn't really change the course of anything."</p><p>A little yelp escaped her and she threw herself at me, giving me the tightest hug she could muster. It was not much, and she was as cold as she always was, and I loved it. I loved her, too.</p><p>When she pulled away, she opened her mouth and closed it, which was not something that really ever happened. If her mouth opened she was jabbering off about whatever she opened it for with no filter. </p><p>"Hm?"</p><p>"Oh. Uh, yeah, don't worry about all that." Ibuki looked down at her fingernails, examining the chipped polish instead of looking at me. </p><p>I glanced down at my nails too and realized that I needed to paint mine soon. "Worry about what?"</p><p>"Mm, life stuff. Life is weird." She muttered, picking at the polish now. "At least me being honest with you about the whole love thing is ticked off the great Ibuki list of things I gotta do fairly urgently."</p><p>"Well yeah, you're weird, so of course your life is weird." I nudged her and was a little concerned about how solemn she was. Normally she got all pent up with excitement, especially with emotional stuff. And I did not doubt she was happy, she was still smiling and bouncing her leg and the hug she gave me proved it all. She was still acting weird though.</p><p>Ibuki kicked her knees up and brought them up to her on the bench, wrapping her arms around them and resting her chin on her knees. "Graduation is stupid!"</p><p>I cocked an eyebrow. "Uh, no, we both ditch school all the time so graduation is gonna be liberation, Buki."</p><p>"No, its stupid cuz I'm older than you so I graduate first and I have to tour as soon as I graduate and I'm not gonna get to see you every day and it makes me sad cause I love you and you love me so it sucks even more now! I shouldn't have said it cause now it makes me wanna cry for ten thousand hours instead of six hundred." Ibuki always threw out the most random words, but I could process that she was more sad now that she knew that I was pretty damn serious about her.</p><p>The thought made me pretty sad too, so I was at a loss for words for a minute. I was supposed to be happy whenever she strutted out in her cap and gown but it sort of made me anxious now. She could totally forget about me on tour, Ibuki was gonna see the whole world. She's a rockstar on top of it all and metalheads of all types would sell organs to date her. I sort of got caught up in my own fear for a second and just didn't say a word, but I rubbed her shoulder to make sure she knew I was still there.</p><p>Silence continued for a few moments, and the air felt heavy. "I don't wanna think about it all right now. It'll definitely be okay." Ibuki let out a very, very loud sigh, almost as if she was determined to deflate all the sadness. As soon as the sigh was out she became particularly chipper and grabbed both my hands, perking right up in the seat. "Hey, I love you!"</p><p>"I love you too." It was still weird to roll that off the tongue, but I said it back. </p><p>"So you gotta give me more than your jacket now! You gave that to me before you said it, so now you gotta give me something worthy of that word!"</p><p>My mind fell in the gutter again. "Uh. Um. Hm."</p><p>She was eyeing me expectantly.</p><p>"Baseball?"</p><p>"Nope, underwear!" Ibuki did grabby hands into the air, "Gimme!"</p><p>While I felt marginally better about my mind being in the gutter, I was a little confused on what she was proposing in the first place. "You just want a pair of my underwear? What are you even gonna do with em?"</p><p>"I dunno, probably just like keep em in my drawer or somethin. Or use them for black magic!" She clapped her hands together, cheerful, "Kazuichi told me that you did a panty raid together once, what did you do with the panties whenever you did that?"</p><p>My face immediately went flush and for probably the millionth time in my life I swore that I was gonna hang Kazuichi by his fucking balls. He was the whole reason I even knew Ibuki so I of course owed him a lot but the amount of embarrassing shit he told her about me made my skin crawl. "That was sort of more for the thrill of it all? I mean we sort of passed around one of the pairs as a joke and would throw em at each other and I just sorta left it wherever."</p><p>"Hm, I would give you mine but I dunno it I want you to throw em at Kaz, that would be like, super weird for me." I had no idea that me receiving her panties was an option that was even on the fucking table to begin with, so I went quiet.</p><p>"So like what would you do if I gave you mine?" She was enjoying this. People think Ibuki is just an airhead and always spouting random bullshit and sometimes that is the case, but sometimes she would calculate her games.</p><p>"Eh, I dunno. Maybe wear em as a mask." She may have been toying with me to embarrass me, but Ibuki failed to factor that I had been with a lot of women. Having a girl's panties was many bases behind where I had been in life. Admittedly I was a lot more nervous around her with intimate crap still, but it was not a new concept and I could attempt to play cool. </p><p>Ibuki nodded. "Okay, then I can wear yours as a mask! Maybe I can sew it into a quilt when I'm done."</p><p>If that had been said by literally anyone but her I would have been intensely creeped out. But she just said shit like that.</p><p>"I mean, I guess you can have a pair? And I guess you can sew em into a quilt weirdo." I ruffled the back of her hair, only slightly phased by the weird conversation. "I get a pair of yours right?"</p><p>She stuck out her tongue and shot me a look. "What a perv, but sure."</p><p>"You asked first."</p><p>"Well I've never been on a panty raid so I clearly don't have any weird thoughts about the matter! I just think it's cute." Her tone was insistent but the concept alone was way too sensual for her to play it off entirely in my mind.</p><p>Deciding to challenge her logic, I piped up, "What on Earth is cute about having my underwear?" </p><p>"Cause nobody else can have it. It makes me sorta special." Ibuki huffed, "Plus if we break up we can split even by selling one another's undies! You know mine would probably sell for a shit ton."</p><p>Admittedly her panties would probably go for way more than my boxers just due to the nature of her male audience in particular. I had fangirls and all, but it paled in comparison. </p><p>"But you gotta promise you won't give em away, especially not to Teruteru. He stole mine earlier in the year! I'd be way more offended but he stole everyone's, so like, I at least didn't feel targeted but it still felt yucky." She crinkled up her nose, very clearly disgusted.</p><p>I knew I had been going on about stringing up Kazuichi by his balls, but I was really gonna mess Teruteru up for that. There were plenty of weirdos out in the world that perved on Ibuki but all of them had a lot less access to her than Teruteru did. Fucker got to see her every damn day. And she was right that he at least never went directly and only for her but the fact that he still did really put me in a bad mood. It would be so insanely easy to just ball the guy up and throw him into space.</p><p>"Hm, you can't just throw him into space!"</p><p>The statement was so dead on to what I was thinking that I ended up choking on my spit. "W-what?"</p><p>The musician giggled, "Sayaka isn't the only psychic!" Ibuki sat up straight and started speaking in a much more refined and soft voice, "Hehe, just kidding! I'm just really perceptive is all. No need to worry!"</p><p>"Pretty good impression. Remember to bat your lashes a lot more though." Playfully, I nudged her side.</p><p>Her posture slacked and she let out a hefty sigh, "Jeez, do you know how much keeping up a persona like that sucks? I don't know how she can do that all the time. I always felt like, so tired when I had to do interviews. I have a mad stage prescene and having to act like a delicate soft girl was balllllllls." </p><p>I was privy to all the drama in her old group, Black Cherry. The drama mostly stemmed from the management behind it though, always pushing Ibuki to put on a very specific persona since she was the lead singer, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter. Her presence was very important to the group and thus she was contractually pulled into acting in a very particular way and had strict guidelines on how she could look. Ibuki hated looking at photos of herself from then even more than I hated looking at my old baseball cards. </p><p>She was blonde back then and they had her perform with her natural eye color. Apparently she had a massively strict diet and had to stuff her bra, which was really weird considering her age at the time. Ibuki detested every bit of it all.</p><p>"Well now you just do whatever, right? Don't gotta bat an eyelash at anyone anymore." Deciding to remind her that all of that was behind her now, I propped an arm behind her and started playing with her hair.</p><p>"Mhm. But you gotta shave your hair sooooooon." She spoke like she was teasing, but I knew she understood that I was not happy about it. I wanted to play baseball again though and I somehow did not get a pass on it even though I was literally the best player any high school field had ever seen.</p><p>I grunted. "Yeah…."</p><p>Ibuki leaned against my chest, looking up at me with a small smile. "Hey. Its gonna be ok, ya know?"</p><p>"I'm gonna look real fucking stupid. I look really bad with brown hair too and they won't let me dye it even, and I can't keep my goatee." They barely would slide and let my piercings stay, but after a little bit of convincing based on my ultimate I was at least allowed that. "I'm gonna look real fucking weird next to you after all this."</p><p>She gave me the poutiest pout I had ever seen. "Aw, shit! I'm only attracted to your goatee and a few inches of keratin and manic panic hair dye. Fuck. Guess I gotta leave now."</p><p>I understood what she was saying but it did not change much about how I felt about it. Without those things, I felt really defeated. Sure, I had been popular with girls way before I took on my aesthetic head on, but losing it all was upsetting.</p><p>Ibuki grabbed my hand. "Your hands are like, really rough."</p><p>"And your fingers feel like a brillo pad, what are you trying to say?" She had absolutley no reason to be calling out my calloused hands when her own were just as bad. </p><p>Not taking my words to heart, she simply ran her index finger over my knuckles. "Boohoo, I'm trying to compliment you. I always thought you had pretty hands, even before I really knew you."</p><p>I was quiet again, not really sure what to say when she did get sentimental and broke up her usual silliness.</p><p>"They're like, real vieny though. It probably is like super easy for you to get your blood drawn at the doctor. Whenever I go my veins get all rolly, and it takes forever and they always have to stab me like six times." I was not sure what she was trailing on about now, but her expression was calm and I liked watching her talk. "... I guess that really didn't tie into anything. Hehe, sometimes I really can't figure out what my mind is trying to say i guess. But…."</p><p>Ibuki straightened up again and grabbed my hands, beaming.</p><p>"I love you no matter what! And you should love yourself too, no matter what. That's what Ibuki's brain is trying to say!" Ibuki's eyes looked more desperate than normal, even underneath how cheerfully she was smiling. </p><p>She believed in me. That was what all that meant. No matter what I looked like or what I did, she believed in it.</p><p>My face was red but I made no attempt to hide it, but I still gave her the best smirk I could muster. "Hm. Well, you better keep that promise then."</p><p>"Aye aye! I swear on my panties!" Our conversation had been such a rollercoaster that I had comeplelty forgotten that we had a whole discussion on trading underwear. It was a little jarring to be reminded of that, so I just laughed it off. Ibuki always made me laugh. She joined in, slouching back in the bench and hugging her bear tight.</p><p>When the laughter died down we watched the stars above us in silence. We had been here a lot longer than I realized. Time went by pretty quick when she was around, and the fear of her graduation sunk in even more. Time with her was always quick and soon enough it was gonna slide through my hands and she would be gone. </p><p>"I'll keep that promise too. The one about loving you no matter what." I kept my eyes on the stars.</p><p>Her laugh was airy, musical. "I already knew you would."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>To anyone who read this at all: I love you so much for even entertaining this fic. This pair brings me so much joy and is the only reason I'm currently writing fanfic since there is hardly any content for this ship</p></blockquote></div></div>
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